“It is wrong to describe the NHS in that way and it does not show an undertsanding of the problems there are in other countries.”

After witnessing the scale of the problem first-hand, Mr Herbert decided to act.

He helped set up the all party group on tuberculosis and raised the issue in the House of Commons.

A roadblock he has faced is the lack of public knowledge about the disease, with many believing TB is something out of a history book.

He said: “Can you imagine if tomorrow the World Health Organisation announced there was a new disease and it was going to kill nearly two-million people?

“There would be bedlam. There would be a global emergency and resources would be diverted to this.”

But, Mr Herbert added: “That is what we have.”

While a vaccine against the disease – the BCG – exists, our own NHS states it is rarely effective in adults.

Mr Herbert said the absence of an adult vaccine was making the disease even harder to fight, and he added he believes pharmaceutical companies see no real market for a solution.

This, Mr Herbert said, is because TB is mostly found in developing countries, although it is seen elsewhere.

He added: “This is a disease of the poor and perhaps that is why it does not have the attention it needs.

As well as his work with the parliamentary group, Mr Herbert formed the Global TB Caucus three years ago, alongside Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, minister of health for South Africa.

Through this group, Mr Herbert and others have been able to take the fight against TB to the world stage.

He welcomed ministers from around the world to Wiston House, near Steyning, in June, to discuss the issue.

And just last month the MPvisited Washington DC. In November, Mr Herbert is due to speak at a global TB conference in Moscow, which will serve as a warm-up event to the first ever UN General Assembly meeting on the fight against TB next year.

Mr Herbert said: “Just saying it is an issue is not enough, it needs a concrete plan of action.”

According to Mr Herbert, the UK Government has been supportive, recently committing more than £1billion to fighting TB.

He said a vaccine is needed before a drug-resistant strain of TB becomes widespread.

“No epidemic has ever been beaten without a vaccine,” he added. “The costs of drug resistance would be catastrophic.”

He said the cost of beating TB would be ‘relatively small’ compared to money spent on other diseases.

Mr Herbert also clarified human TB and bovine TB are not the same disease, although a vaccine for one would likely work for the other.